Poof! Well There Goes One Dream...Solar Roof

pnichols wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-20/inside-elon-musk-s-forgotten-gigafactory-2-in-buffalo

An entire RV roof, nearly every square inch...I would loved to see it become a reality

Hmmmm .... over the past 40 years .... myself, my wife, and various maintenance workers have walked on our stick house roof "doing things", "modifying things", and "fixing things" - most of this not at all related to the roof material itself. I've done the same on our RV roof. I wonder how a complete solar roof would handle this kind of real life high pounds per square inch wear and tear?

It seems like the first and most important solar power priority for nearly every solar power installation going forward should be to get the efficiency of solar panels way, way above their current 18-22% conversion range. I hope this is a no-brainer regarding where solar power research dollars are being concentrated.

In addition to the efficiency and durability of the panels themselves is the life expectancy of other components required. One of the targets that gets repeated to me is a 20 year life expectancy which is still a challenge for some of the components (especially high C/V liquid and hybrid electrolyte capacitors) when being exposed to relatively high temperatures.